Social policy

Summary

Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society. Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD and DO in healthcare), with social policy deemed more holistic than public policy. Whichever of these persuasions a university adheres to, social policy begins with the study of the welfare state and social services. It consists of guidelines, principles, legislation and associated activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare, such as a person's quality of life. The Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics defines social policy as "an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies' responses to social need", which seeks to foster in its students a capac

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_policy

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OBJECTIVE Body mass index (BMI) may cluster in space among adults and be spatially dependent. Whether and how BMI clusters evolve over time in a population is currently unknown. We aimed to determine the spatial dependence of BMI and its 5-year evolution in a Swiss general adult urban population, taking into account the neighborhood- and individual-level characteristics. DESIGN Cohort study SETTING Swiss general urban population PARTICIPANTS 6,481 geo-referenced individuals from the CoLaus cohort at baseline (age range 35–74 years, period=2003-2006) and 4,460 at follow-up (period=2009-2012). OUTCOME MEASURES Body weight and height were measured by trained health care professionals with participants standing without shoes in light indoor clothing. BMI was calculated as weight (kg) divided by height squared (m2). Participants were geocoded using their postal address (geographic coordinates of the place of residence). Getis-Ord Gi statistic was used to measure the spatial dependence of BMI values at baseline and its evolution at follow-up. RESULTS BMI was not randomly distributed across the city. At baseline and at follow-up, significant clusters of high versus low BMIs were identified and remained stable during the two periods. These clusters were meaningfully attenuated after adjustment for neighborhood-level income but not individual-level characteristics. Similar results were observed among participants who developed obesity. CONCLUSIONS To our knowledge, this is the first study to report longitudinal changes in BMI clusters in adults from a general population. Spatial clusters of high BMI persisted over a 5-year period and were mainly influenced by neighborhood-level income. ARTICLE SUMMARY STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY • As far as we know, this is the first study to report the persistence of spatial clusters of high BMI values over a 5-year period in adults from a general population • The observed east to west pattern of BMI clustering fits known socio-economic and ethno-cultural differences distinguishing these opposite regions of the city of Lausanne, Switzerland • A consequence of the social policy applied by the city is likely to fix populations with modest income in subsidized housing located in specific areas • While recruitment methods of the CoLaus study aimed at collecting information on a representative sample of the general population, adult participants and non-participants to the CoLaus study may differ and participation bias cannot be excluded • We considered several individual-level covariates but data on individual income was missing. We used instead the median income of the including city statistical sector.

Bmj Publishing Group2016

Understanding the Social Implications of the Digital Transformation: Insights from Four Case Studies on the Role of Social Innovation to Foster Resilience of Society, Electronic Participation

Gianluca Carlo Misuraca, Gianluigi Viscusi

This paper advances further the analysis of previous exploratory research conducted by the authors on how social innovation can foster resilience in a digital governance context. The process of innovation in social policy, as well as the building of resilience implies changes in the existing status quo. ICTs can drive and steer such change, while at the same time they can act as counterbalance for the negative consequence of the digital transformation of labour markets on social protection systems. Understanding the logics and principles behind the design and implementation processes of exemplary innovative initiatives is thus crucial from a policy learning perspective, in order to identify the drivers and processes making this change happen and determining its outcomes. Based on an extensive body of literature reviewed the framework proposed for interpreting the effects of social innovation in fostering resilience fare discussed through four case studies.

Springer2018

Digital Governance Challenges for ICT- Enabled Innovation of Social Protection Systems in the EU

Gianluca Carlo Misuraca, Gianluigi Viscusi

ICT-Enabled Social Innovation can help making existing service more efficient and effective, but also produce new services as a result of integration among different policy silos. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can also promote conceptual innovation in the sense of changing the base (empirical and analytical) upon which policy are first designed and later evaluat- ed. Building on extensive literature review and analysis of case studies conduct- ed as part of the research on ICT-Enabled Social Innovation (IESI) conducted by the European Commission ́s Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS), this article discusses, the results of an analy- sis of three selected case studies, exploring the relationship between different ty- pologies of ICT-enabled social innovation implemented and the broader social protection system in which they are embedded in, contributing to determine if a relationship is identified between the nature and type of ICT-enabled social in- novation and the modernization of social policies, considering the broader digital governance space in which they are implemented.

IOS Press2016

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Bmj Publishing Group2016